Mixtape Review-Winter’s Diary 3 by Tink

Everyone has something different to say, naturally, but Tink is one of the most promising songwriting talents R&B has seen in years. That’s been there from the start. As far back as you go in her catalog you can find clever, daring songs that twist and turn while remaining true to that 90’s R&B your-body-all-over-my-body sound.

The really interesting thing about Winter’s Diary 3 is this is the first project after the world discovered her on a mass level. Timbaland is now working with her and the machine is churning behind her first release. The expectations are getting up there and the music is taking on more polish and less rough edges. Music is such a brittle thing that a lot of artists straight up fail to translate.

Winter’s Diary 3 is proof that she’s a liquid capable of filling any open space. The durability is on display as she goes from Timbaland production to Cookin’ Soul to C Sick to DJ Wes, all giving very different production. Her voice links everything. Jelan Abrams is a great example; she provides the hard nosed brick and mortar East Coast hip hop beat on Medicine Interlude and Tink turns it into a vengeful I WANT NO MORE OF YOU frenzy (“Never trust no N_ cause they all got options”) but she also gives a lighter sweeter toned down thump on H2O that Tink turns into hypnotic cooing with real longing surrounding it.

Cookin’ Soul stuff Very Very Special with faint background chanting and enough bass to make Fiend feel comfortable. Tink dictates the pace and when the beat wants to speed up she pulls it to a halt with her easy going, slowly enunciated chorus. This level of control comes hand in hand with a great deal of artistic intelligence, which is the primary concern with her Timbaland relationship. She does not need Timbo to mold and fashion her into a musical force. She is a musical force. She needs his best beats. Their collaboration on this tape is L.E.A.S.H. and it might be the tapes least interesting song. They are still working on chemistry. It might seem curious that all the songs with DJ Wes or Silly The Producer are home runs that she knocks out of the park and the weakest track is with one of THE important musical minds of his generation. When you’ve been an artist on the bubble you are used to scrapping for yourself; masterminding your own development. A well received mixtape later you are in the studio with a legend wondering…do I even get to argue with this dude? If so, how do I do it nicely? The chemistry takes a while.

A loud shout out goes to DJ Wes who made Jupiter into the thickest nastiest booty jam of a beat. On Afterparty he takes the beat into first album Whitney Houston territory and Tink turns the content excitedly sexual in her trademark endearing way(Tink describes having sex like I describe finding comic books I’ve been searching years for. She’s always goofy excited, not creepy excited.) You can trust her to approach any subject from a healthy direction, whether she is discovery the rapture of new love or deliberating in golden tones about being cheated on. Through ten songs she’s always considerately human and that’s always fascinating and easy to connect with.

Winter’s Diary 3 is better than 2. The album better be better than this. We’ll all be mad if it isn’t because she’s so f#$%*@^ good.